This two-page, handwritten copy of a letter to Mark Delahay from Abraham Lincoln was probably given to the KSHS by Delahay's daughter Mary E. Delahay in the early 1900s. Lincoln regretfully declined an invitation to attend the Osawatomie convention on May 18 which was to formally organize the Republican Party in Kansas. Lincoln warned against "the temptation to lower the Republican Standard [in whatever platform the convention might adopt] in order to gather recruits. In my judgment," Lincoln continued," such a step would be a serious mistake" that "would surrender the object of the Republican organization--the preventing the Spread and Nationalization of Slaver . . ."

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